Donald N. Muhammad CPO-EPP

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s con game continues into its fourth budget.   If Mayor Johnson’s budget is approved, it means his tax and fee increases in office amount to $1.3 billion while his school board has raised property taxes another $857 million.   The burden imposed by Johnson’s tax and fee increases are not on rich corporations, billionaires and millionaires as he claims. It falls on city residents, regardless of income, and on city businesses of all sizes regardless of their income or profits.    Even his so-called progressive spending agenda side is a shell game.    Despite all his big promises, the Mayor has only reopened 3 mental health centers, built only 500 affordable housing units, has barely returned the summer jobs program to pre-COVID levels and his vaunted mental health initiatives has seen a 70% drop in the number of responses. The Mayor’s big con game continues!

Must be election year! After delaying his promised replacement of ShotSpotter that was conveniently ended right after the 2024 Democratic Convention, Mayor Johnson’s is going to test a new gun shot detection system in six neighborhoods previously served by ShotSpotter. Too late for at least 94 gunshot victims who had no 911 calls made or delayed calls that hindered a timely emergency response. At least 57 or 60% of died. This is three times the fatality rate of other gunshot victims across the city time. The Mayor and supporters called ShotSpotter racist despite the fact that over 80% of the over 100 lives ShotSpotter is estimated to have saved and the 57 lives lost when the Mayor discontinued ShotSpotter were 80% Black. Mayor Johnson’s elimination of ShotSpotter cost Black lives!

Play it again, Brandon.   As details begin to seep out, Mayor Johnson’s budget is revealed to be a rehash of his 2026 budget.   Johnson will once again try to convince us he is taxing “big corporations” and “protecting working families,” but his budget like the last does neither.   Here are some immutable truths about the 2027 budget:       •    The proposed jobs killing $25 per-employee head tax is laid on large businesses even if the company does not record a profit.       •    The already nation leading transaction tax will rise to 20% to the cost to any business or individual who accesses computer services.       •     Johnson will add another $285 million in property taxes from TIF’s to the $300 million increase in property taxes already approved by his controlled school board.     •    Despite Johnson’s “tax-the-rich” rhetoric, Chicago residents could face several other new fees and taxes if the mayor’s budget is passed. None of what the mayor is proposing will require billionaires and millionaires to pay their “fair share.”

Yes, Mayor Johnson actually said it.    Facing an $882 million budget shortfall, the mayor he will tax corporations that are making “more money ... than they’ve ever made in the history of the world,” including the “free labor period of slavery.”   Didn’t know Chicago had corporations that profited from free slave labor.    Will someone tell our former history teacher turned mayor that Illinois was a free state that sent 256,000 residents to fight in the Union Army. And would someone remind the mayor 35,000 died for the cause of freeing slaves.

The Tale of Two Billionaires Last week, Illinois’ most famous out-migrant and most generous philanthropist, Ken Griffin, pledged $3 billion to Carnegie Mellon University, with $2 billion alone going toward a Miami campus—the largest gift to a university in history. Griffin has already donated $400 million to organizations in his new home state of Florida. Gov. JB Pritzker and other Democrats publicly mocked Griffin and celebrated when he and more than 1,000 of his well-paid employees left Illinois, taking with him the $200 million in annual state income taxes he pays, not counting those paid by his well-compensated employees. Griffin’s sin? Trying to help keep Illinois a two-party state by countering Pritzker’s massive political spending. The absence of checks and balances has allowed Pritzker to raise taxes and fees 63 times, taking another $87 billion out of the pockets of Illinois residents and businesses. Billionaire Pritzker, by the way, apparently paid only $869,000 in taxes in 2024, while the family trust paid $4.5 million. Griffin took his charity with him, too, after providing a record $650 million to Chicago-area institutions, including awarding $130 million after he had already made his decision to leave—dwarfing Pritzker’s giving. Meanwhile, the Pritzker family has generously benefited from a charitable government through various commercial property tax reductions, publicly backed venue funding, and legacy tax structures. Unlike Griffin, who spends many times more on charity than on politics, Pritzker’s preferred charity is himself, having spent $439 million to be elected governor, millions more on Democratic candidates in Illinois and nationwide, and $30 million in the last election to help secure a Republican nominee who would be easier for him to beat.